Sports Media With Richard Deitsch

Episode 26 of the Sports Media Podcast features Turner Sports and Fox Sports soccer host Kate Abdo; a media discussion with Boston Globe media writer Chad Finn on Monday Night Football’s broadcast crew and declining World Series viewership; and best-selling author and Detroit Free Press sports columnist Mitch Albom.    In this podcast, Abdo discusses her role as the studio host for Turner and Bleacher Report’s UEFA Champions League coverage; how she ended up in soccer broadcasting after leaving home at 16; the differences between working in sports media in the U.K., Germany and the United States; the sexualized coverage of women broadcasters in the U.K.; being fluent in four languages and how that has shaped her soccer work; her biggest takeaway from Fox’s coverage of the 2018 World Cup; her Muslim faith and whether she has experienced discrimination or repression in her job; how she navigated Ramadan and calling the World Cup; future assignments and much more.    Deitsch and Finn discuss the declining Wo

Episode 25 of the Sports Media Podcast features Sports Business Daily media writer John Ourand for a discussion on the latest sports media news.    In this podcast, Ourand and Deitsch discuss the current NFL viewership numbers and why they are up from 2017; whether the league can sustain the ratings through the end of the regular season; the impact of quarterbacks, competitive games, and news fatigue on the viewership; the World Series matchup between the Dodgers and Red Sox and what kind of interest there will be nationally; a look at Fox’s MLB pregame show; the NBA viewership numbers from the opening week of the season and the impact of LeBron James moving from the Eastern to Western Conference; whether the Boston Celtics can fill the TV role that Cleveland played last year with James; Ourand’s interview with ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro; the stylistic difference between Pitaro and John Skipper; Pitaro’s discussion with Ourand on the role of political talk and ESPN and the impact it had; the opposing views

Episode 24 of the Sports Media Podcast features guests Rachel Nichols of ESPN and Candace Parker of Turner Sports. Nichols is the host of The Jump and a longtime reporter whose resume includes CNN, Turner Sports and the Washington Post. Parker Is a future Basketball Hall of Famer who recently joined the NBA on TNT and NBA TV as an analyst. She currently plays for the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA. In this podcast, Nichols discusses how The Jump gets put together daily; who she thinks is watching her show; women getting solo hosting jobs in the sports media; how much attention she pays to her show’s ratings; the impact of having an afternoon time slot; whether she considers NBA Countdown a competitor or complement to her show; what ESPN management has told her about the long-term prospects of her show; how her interview with Minnesota star forward Jimmy Butler came about; whether she feels Butler used her as part of a media strategy; why Mark Cuban agreed to go on with her to answer questions about sexual

Episode 23 of the Sports Media Podcast features Jemele Hill. In this podcast, Hill discusses leaving ESPN after 12 years; why she decided to leave; how one goes about negotiating a buyout with ESPN; the role of management changes at SportsCenter that led to her leaving SC6; whether ESPN management wanted her to stay or leave the company; why SC6 was not a viewership hit; the role of former ESPN president John Skipper in her career and the impact of Skipper’s leaving the network because of a cocaine addiction and the subsequent impact of that addiction; whether ESPN was too deep in political talk; her Twitter feed in the era of Donald Trump; her thoughts on the comments of Disney Chairman Bob Iger regarding ESPN swinging the pendulum a little bit too far away from sports; the culture of ESPN under new president Jimmy Pitaro; ESPN’s commitment to journalism regarding the NFL in the Pitaro era; what she will be writing for The Atlantic, where she will work as a staff writer; her role as the narrator for LeBron J

Episode 22 of the Sports Media Podcast features Yahoo! Sports senior NBA insider Chris Haynes. In this podcast, Haynes discussed why he ended up leaving ESPN; what he expects at Yahoo! Sports; how ESPN wanted him to remain a local Bay Area as opposed to a national reporter; what it was like covering LeBron James for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer; what James discusses with reporters; what it’s like to have multiple employers over the past six years; whether he feels the pressure to break news as previous Yahoo staffers Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania; addressing charges that he is too close to Kevin Durant; how reporters of color are seen in the league; graduating from Fresno State at 27 and trying to break into journalism; working as a security guard during the day and covered Trail Blazers games at night; why the Raptors might be the most interesting NBA story this year, and much more.    You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher and more. Learn more about your ad choice

Episode 21 of the Sports Media Podcast features Renee Young, who was recently named as a fulltime commentator on Monday Night Raw, the WWE’s flagship show. Young is the first woman to hold that position. In the podcast, Young discusses why her six-year run at WWE has worked out as well as it has; how she found about getting the Raw job from Michael Cole, Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, and Vince McMahon; what her process is like to prepare for Monday Night Raw; how much she is aware of specific match activity versus storyline/backstory;  how NXT helped develop her as an announcer; what her WWE audition was like; how her real-life will or will not impact what viewers will hear from her if Dean Ambrose (her real-life husband) is appearing on RAW; what makes Stephanie McMahon and Paul Heyman such great performers; how Heyman has helped her since her early days with WWE; which people in the company she hangs with while on the road; her newfound love of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights; why The Shield would beat the nW

Episode 21 of the Sports Media Podcast features four guests. The first segment is a roundtable with Black Sports Online founder and editor Robert Littal and Newsday sports columnist and reporter Neil Best. In the podcast, the three of us discuss what CBS, Fox, ESPN, and NBC have in store for you this year when it comes to the NFL; the changes we are most curious about regarding the networks that air NFL games; how the networks will cover the intersection of social justice and football; our thoughts on how the Colin Kaepernick/Nike story has played out over the first few days; opportunism in the sports media and cable television regarding Kaepernick; the new ESPN Monday Night Football booth and much more. The next segment features Scott Hanson, the longtime host of of NFL RedZone, as well as co-host of NFL Network’s NFL Total Access along with Lindsay Rhodes. We discuss why people are interested in the NFL Red Zone; who he envisions is his audience; how many people watch; the changes to this year’s production;

Episode 21 of the Sports Media Podcast features three guests. The first segment is a roundtable with Sports Business Daily media writer John Ourand and Black Sports Online founder and editor Robert Littal. In the podcast, the three of us discuss Jemele Hill leaving ESPN; what it means for the ESPN brand; why it happened; how much of it the decision was tied to Hill’s suspension last October or new ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro; what it says that ESPN’s most prominent African-American female voice has left the company; Michelle Beadle leaving Get Up! to return to Los Angeles for added basketball responsibilities; Fox’s foray into Thursday Night Football; whether college football viewership will be hurt by a summer of scandal; the future of ESPN’s The Undefeated and more. The third guest is Ryan Glasspiegel of The Big Lead website. We discuss Glasspiegel’s breaking the story of Beadle leaving Get Up!; why he thinks it happened; whether there is any relationship to Beadle’s comments about no longer watching footba

Episode 20 of the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch features two guests: The first is ESPN insider Adam Schefter, who is the author (along with SI’s Michael Rosenberg) of a new book, “The Man I Never Met: A Memoir.” The second guest is WNBA All-Star forward Chiney Ogwumike, who works as an ESPN host and commentator away from professional basketball.    In this podcast Schefter discusses his new book, which is about how his life intersected with Joe Maio, who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald and died on Sept. 11, 2011 at the World Trade Center; why he decided to write a book about his wife’s late husband; how to write something so personal; revealing personal details about his life including the failure of his first marriage; what his wife and children, including Joe’s son who was 27 months old when Joe died; thought about the book; visiting the 9-11 site; how ESPN’s reset of its NFL relationship impacts him; what teams are the most forthcoming or transparent; the most interesting story this year in the N

Episode 19 of the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch features two guests: Sports Business Daily media writer John Ourand and MLB Network and Fox Sports MLB analyst John Smoltz.   In this podcast, Ourand discusses ESPN’s new weekly lineup changes and recommitment to SportsCenter; the end of SportsNation; why Ourand thinks the move to 4:00 p.m. ET is good for High Noon; the run on global soccer rights for streaming entities such as ESPN+ and B/R; whether out-of-home-viewership stats has any business significance for networks and why Fox pushed it for the World Cup; Keith Olbermann’s turn as baseball caller for ESPN; the anger from some that ESPN has employed Olbermann, and much more;   Smoltz discusses why he decided to pursue broadcasting following the conclusion of his playing career in 2009; the role of a baseball broadcast in 2018; how he prepares for a studio show versus a game broadcast and which one challenges him more; how he looks at the role of analytics for both the studio and the booth; w

Episode 18 of the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch features guest Rebecca Lowe, the host of NBC Sports Group’s Premier League coverage, including Premier League Live, as well as an Olympic host for the network. In this podcast Lowe discusses her broadcasting comfort level as she heads into her sixth year working Stateside for NBC; how she manages the tricky logistics of her working schedule including raising a toddler in Northern California; the challenges of doing studio work onsite from the U.K.; how she approaches her future following the conclusion of her contract in 2022; navigating her attachment to the Crystal Palace football club while covering the Premier League; what she and Kate Abdo leading soccer packages in the U.S. means if anything; the impact of the 2026 World Cup in North America; why she has never seen Game of Thrones or most of the Star Wars films; how relegation would be an incredible thing for MLS; the difference between pants and trousers, and much more. You can subscribe to th

Episode 17 of the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch features college football reporter Brett McMurphy, who this week broke a major story on his Facebook account regarding charges from Courtney Smith, the ex-wife of a longtime assistant of Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer. Smith called into question Meyer’s claims he was unaware of a 2015 allegation of domestic abuse against the assistant. In this podcast, McMurphy discusses the timeline of his reporting; how he first contacted Smith; why Smith spoke on the record with McMurphy; what Smith’s reaction was to McMurphy’s questions; the duration of those interviews with Smith, the paper trail that McMurphy tracked down for his reporting including law enforcement records; why he broke this story on Facebook, why he could not write this for another publication because of his current contractual situation with ESPN; his expectations on how many people would read his story, what breaking the story on Facebook says about the traditional mantra that subjec

Episode 16 of the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch features three guests: First, a candid conversation with longtime NBA writer and broadcaster Frank Isola, who was let go this week by Tronc after 25 years of working at the New York Daily News. The second guest is Clifton Brown, an enterprise reporter at the IndyStar and the author of Bearing the Cross: My Inspiring Journey from Poverty to the NFL and Sports Television. The final guest is Sports Illustrated senior writer Ben Reiter, the author of a new book, Astroball: The New Way To Win It All.   In this podcast, Isola, the co-host of SiriusXM NBA Radio’s “The Starting Lineup,” and an ESPN TV contributor, discusses how he learned he had lost his longtime job with the Daily News; the impact off the decision on his family; why he feels it happened; what management has said and not said to him; how he feels about the newspaper business in New York City; what it has been like working at a paper with significant financial troubles; his years covering t

Episode 15 of the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch features two guests: First, a sports media conversation with James Andrew Miller, the best-selling author of books on CAA, ESPN and Saturday Night Live. The second guest is Conrad Thompson, the host of three immensely popular wresting podcasts: Something to Wrestle (with Bruce Pritchard); 83 Weeks (with Eric Bischoff) and What Happened When (with Tony Schiavone)   In this podcast, Miller discusses ESPN’s current relationship with the NFL under new president Jimmy Pitaro versus its relationship under former President John Skipper; the role of the ESPYs in the ESPN universe and why criticism might be unfair; whether journalism at ESPN will be supported by Pitaro or whether ESPN reporters should be concerned; the future of Outside The Lines; whether Pitaro would do a content deal with Barstool Sports or a company such as Barstool; the futures of Keith Olbermann and Chris Berman at ESPN; and much more. Thompson discusses the process of how he does each

Episode 14 of the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch features two guests: Sports Business Daily media reporter John Ourand and women’s basketball broadcaster and podcaster LaChina Robinson. In this podcast, Ourand discusses his reporting on the deal ESPN signed for UFC rights and the deal Fox signed for WWE Smackdown; how each deal came together; why ESPN was interested in UFC and where the programming will run; whether UFC has growth potential as a broadcast property; whether ESPN will examine the UFC with a journalism eye or merely as a promotional partner; how and why Fox came to get the WWE; whether Fox will use its FS1 debate shows to promote WWE; the economic calculations of both deals; how the World Cup viewership declines should be analyzed; the 2026 World Cup deal for Fox, and much more; Robinson discusses her myriad of jobs in women’s basketball including working for ESPN, Fox Sports, Raycom’s ACC women’s basketball, the Atlanta Dream, and espnW; the challenges of forging a career broadcastin

Episode 13 of the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch features three separate guests: Tania Ganguli, who covers the Lakers for the Los Angeles Times; Sports Illustrated national NBA writer Lee Jenkins, and Dave McMenamin, an NBA reporter for ESPN. The theme of the podcast is the media impact of LeBron James moving from Cleveland to Los Angeles.   In this podcast, Ganguli discusses how James coming to the Lakers impacts her job and why; how she learned of James coming to the Lakers; whether there is added pressure now in her role; her previous contact with James as a beat writer; the added interest in James content among her bosses L.A. Times; how competitive she expect the beat to be now with James there; whether the Lakers will make additional moves later this summer, and much more. Jenkins discusses how he viewed the manner in which James announced this move; the most interesting part of James’s move nationally; whether access will change now that James is in L.A.; attempting to contact James after

Episode 12 of the Sports Media podcast with Richard Deitsch features Molly Sullivan, the popular television sideline reporter on Philadelphia 76ers games who was unexpectedly let go last week by NBC Sports Philadelphia after six years on the job. In this podcast, Sullivan describes in frank terms what happens when you lose your sports media job unexpectedly; what NBC Sports Philadelphia told her about its decision and what they didn’t tell her; how Sixers fans have started a petition on her behalf; covering a team for years that was the worst in the NBA and the challenges of covering a losing team; her on-air relationship with Sixers star Joel Embiid; Sixers coach Brett Brown reaching out to her after he heard she was let go; what she expects from the Sixers heading forward; what she hopes to do next; her thoughts on the Bryan Colangelo story; competing at the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in distance swimming, and much more. The second part of the podcast is a roundtable with Sports Business Daily assistant

Episode 11 of the Sports Media podcast with Richard Deitsch features two guests. First up is ESPN Adnan Virk, who hosts multiple studio shows in multiple sports and is the host of “Cinephile: The Adnan Virk Movie Podcast.” In this podcast Virk goes deep into how an sports broadcaster in his position deals with a contract negotiation; at what point his agent started negotiating an extension at ESPN; the anxiety of not getting an offer prior to the end of a contract; how to get a sense of what money to ask for; the role of broadcast agents and their importance; how to know what to ask for in terms of salary and beyond; the impact of what others at an organization have on your contract negotiations; the role of relationships with your bosses when it comes to contract negotiations; how he ended up getting tennis opportunities into his new contract; the impact of Mo Salah on the Muslim community; being mistaken for former NHL All Star Chris Chelios, and much more. The second guest is Calvin Watkins, who was recent

Episode 10 of the Sports Media podcast with Richard Deitsch features a roundtable with Sports Business Daily media writer John Ourand and Boston Globe media writer Chad Finn, and a one-on-one conversation with Washington Post Capitals reporter Isabelle Khurshudyan. In this podcast, Ourand and Finn discusses the 2026 World Cup being awarded to the U.S., Canada and Mexico and what that means for English-speaking rights-holder Fox Sports; the impact of Fox Sports getting the 2026 tournament without an open bid; the perception of Fox Sports when it comes to its golf and global soccer coverage; Comcast’s attempts for the assets owned by 21st Century Fox and what that would mean for two dozen regional sports networks  owned by Fox Sports; the 2018 NBA Finals viewership; what the NBA offseason means for interest in the sport among rightsholders; whether LeBron James will head to Boston, and much more. Khurshudyan discusses covering a Stanley Cup champion; why the Caps celebration has gone national; how much being fl

Episode 9 of the Sports Media podcast with Richard Deitsch features a conversation with Charissa Thompson, the host of Fox NFL Kickoff and NFL Films Presents on FS1. In this podcast, Thompson discusses why she decided to re-sign with Fox Sports; having conversations with ESPN host Mike Greenberg about working on a morning show with him; having her private photos hacked and leaked online, and the incomprehensible invasion of privacy; the aftermath of that invasion; how she is going about trying to get justice and why that is important; how her parents taught her to focus on how you get up from adversity; why Ryen Russillo has been housesitting at her guest; getting adjusted to a certain level of fame; whether Top Gun 2 is a good idea; her approach on social media when it comes to politics; gambling on sports and going to the race track with her grandfather, Seattle getting hockey, and much more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices